Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’

And then there's this:

“He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake,” Herskowitz said. “That was one of the keys to being a leader.”

Over at MSNBC they are looking for you to file stories for them to use on MSNBC blogs and broadcasts, Be A Citizen Journalist:

Try to remove your personal biases from the story, and do not overhype anything. If there are lines and frustrated people, for instance, that does NOT mean there is voting fraud. Mistakes happen. What we are looking for is the color and flavor of voting across the country, funny stories, mistakes, problems, but mostly the story of Election Day 2004.

Hello?

What have we been saying all along? Citizen journalism isn't bound by standard journalistic practices.

Frolicking in the champagne-soaked celebration on the field with the team and hundreds of Boston Believers was ``Fever Pitch'' star Drew Barrymore, wearing a Red Sox jacket, refilming the finale of her baseball movie.

Her co-star Jimmy Fallon and ``Tessie'' gal Colleen Reilly were spotted jumping up and down during the raucous post-party in the infield screaming ``They did it!'' at the top of their lungs. And in a bizarre case of art imitating life, the Farrelly Brothers' cameras were rolling when the last out was recorded and the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

More impoartant to me is that we peel back some of the veneer that traditionally lurks in the media: i.e. the pretend objectivity that we proclaim so loudly. To me objectivity is a false pretense. It's a false promise on a false premise. Everything we see, feel, hear, know, happens within a certain context - social, economic, political, spiritual, etc...

I say - come out of the closet. Let us know who you support, why, and what for. Let it be part of the public discourse and debate. It's the only meaningful way of trading ideas and feeling sincerely inolved in this process.

The sin wasn't that THE GREAT INDESCRETION OF LIPSYNCING ON SNL WAS REVEALED. All that was revealed is that she (Ashlee Simpson) was using a backing track to go along with the live band and lead vocals; her sin was that she didn't just take control, stop the band, tell the sound engineer to turn off the freaking backing track, and tell everyone to start over again. that is what a seasoned performer, a professional, would have done. She could have simply started singing the correct song and the band would have joined in one way or another. She let the system and technology control her rather than she controlling it.

Let me set the scene: the SNL announcer says: "Once again here's Elvis Costello" as the band launched into a slightly hyper version of "Less Than Zero". Elvis is wearing a grey jacket with a dark tie and a striped shirt, plus narrow-leg blue jeans. As Elvis reaches the line about "there's a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo" he stops short, not quite getting the word 'voodoo' out as he starts to turn, yelling frantically "Stop! Stop!" to the Attractions. The second "stop" is almost inaudible as he has his back to the microphone by this point. Having gotten the band's attention Elvis turns back to the audience and rather earnestly announces "I'm sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here". He then turns back towards the band and says "OK, Radio Radio... 1, 2, 3, 4" and the band crash, slightly awkwardly, into the opening chords of "Radio Radio".

Saturday, October 23, 2004

"Something with my swing was not right in Minnesota," Ortiz said. "I could never hit for power. Whenever I took a big swing, they'd say to me, `Hey, hey, what are you doing?' So I said, `You want me to hit like a little [girl] then I will.'

The Band of Citizens website uses sight, sound, and motion to bring to life the ideas we support. We want to make it easy for people to understand the issues and why John Kerry is the stronger candidate for President, and also easier for them to pass this information along to people who are undecided or unclear about what Kerry stands for.

I don't have a central nervous system left. My head weighs more than Verne Troyer. My heart feels like somebody tried to make meatballs out of it. I can't think straight. I'm a corpse. I'm a walking corpse.

Now I'm going to have to schedule my denist appointments around the TV schedule.

Note to self: When the dentist asks you if your lower lip is numb yet, say yes. Otherwise he'll get out the big needle and fill you with so much novacaine that you won't be able to feel half your face.

Sunday, October 17, 2004

The music in the new Toyota Commercial, with a wheel rolling along, is by the band Fisher.

They say on their site:

If you've been searching for the band that created the "Beautiful Life" song for the Toyota commercials you've found us. We will be releasing a full length version of the track on our next CD due out March 2005. We have also received word that because of the overwhelming amount of inquires Toyota has received about the commercial, they will soon make the 1 minute edited version of the song available for a free download at their site.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

This looks like a good list of recomended tradesmen. I wouldn't have necessarily searched under the word 'tradesman', but the list looks like a good one since it's made up by people in the neighborhood and no money seems to be involved.

Friday, October 15, 2004

If you're a sportsman, you might be interested to known that the squirrel-hunting season... begins Oct. 16 in the eastern part of the state. Both hunting seasons end Jan. 1. Squirrel hunting is popular in some parts of the country, as is squirrel cuisine. Young squirrels are reportedly tasty when fried while older ones are better stewed.

If you think American life and language in 2004 sounds like they have been lifted from the work of Franz Kafka and George Orwell, you’re not alone.

Here at Kafka-Orwell headquarters, we realized that if doublespeak, promotion of irrational fear, and upbeat "message discipline" in the face of troubling reality are what it takes to win the presidency, we might as well have true masters of the form – Franz Kafka and George Orwell – lead our nation for the next four years!

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Best BetsThe Expeience Music Project is a fun place to spend three hours. In addition to watching movies and learning about the history of music, you really can experience music here.

Upstairs there was a cool exhibit where you can learn to play the drums, keyboards and guitar.

Best RestaurantsSears Fine Foods is the place to go in San Francisco for breakfast. Joshua took me here while we were at MacWorld, and I decided to go back. When I searched for the place on Google, it looked to me like it had closed down, but when we walked by, it was open! Get the stack of little Swedish pankakes. They rule!

SonomaRavenswood wins the award for having the coolest laid back dudes behind the counter. I went here expecting to dislike the wine, because I'd had it before and didn't like it. Guess what? They have more than one variety of red. Yup. All the labels look alike, until you take a closer look. Each label designates which vinyard the grapes come from. So if it says something like, 'California', then yhou know it comes from a bunch of different areas. That's the cheapest wine. Probably the one I had and didn't like.

Then you get to the wines where it says where the grapes come from, for example: Barricia or Big River, and those taste better. Note: those labels are narrower than the others. They cost more and taste better.

Arrowood wins the award for having the nicest guy behind the counter. He told us that the laws regulating the sale of wine over state line, like a wine-of-the-month club, are up for review in the Supreme Court this session. Massachusetts won't let wineries send wine to you in the state. All sales must go through a wine distributor. Pretty lame. I hope these restritions get shot down soon and would like to keep up on the case.

Imagery is just next to Arrowood and features artists on each label. This is a nice place to visit both for the wine tasting and for looking at the artwork. This is another winery where you can take your wine and relax and walk around while sampling the different wines.

Chateau St. Jean transports you to a villa in France. Very relaxing. There's a nice place outside in the garden to eat your lunch. We brough ours along, but you could buy one there too at their deli.

HealdsburgKendall-Jackson was the final wine on our trip and wouldn;t you know it, there wasn't a wine tasting charge! They also were happy to give us coupons for free tasings at other wineries. Do all the wineries have these coupons? I actually had a coupon for a free tasing here. While here we got a great suggestion for dinner, Charcuterie, 335 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg.

Next time we go to wine country we're going to concentrate on this area.

Darioush - Brand new multi-million dollar tasting room. Just look for the tall Corinthian columns outside. Or maybe they are Doric. I'll have to look that up.

Once inside, there's comforatble seating for tasting the wines, plus a really cool wall of water. Located at 4240 Silverado Trail, Napa.

Robert Sinsky - Beautiful modern tasing room with free olives and nuts. Mmm, nice olives served on a beautiful bar.

S. Anderson / Cliff Lede - This is a brand new tasing room, with outside seating. There's also artwork on the grounds. The unique thing about this tasting room was that you could take one of the wines you were tasing out into the coutyard and sit under the sun while sampling the wine. It was a very relaxed atmoshphere compared to some of the ther tasing rooms where there was no where to sit.

Niebaum-Coppola - We went here twice. The grounds are stunning. There's a very interesting museum area devoted to the films of Francis Ford Coppola. They've also got a huge store there that sells wine and all kinds of neat little gadgety things.

Cakebread - The best tasting/tour in Napa! That's why you have to make a reservsation beforehand. The cool thing about this tour is that you get to learn the story of the winery as you walk through the premises and taste the wine. No boring talk about how the wine is made.

Copia is 501(c)(3) not-for-profit cultural center and museum whose mission is to investigate and celebrate the culture of the collective table through wine, food and the arts.

While at Copia, we attended a cooking class by Sharon Lebewohl, author of The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook. Sharon was the BEST at showing us how to make chicken soup!

This place was so cool. I'm sure it's different every time you go there. There were a lot of really fun interactive exhibits. I could have stayed inside even longer, but it was such a nice day, after about three hours we just had to get outside.

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About Me

Steve is a Social Media Traveler. Companies, brands, and destinations send my wife and I on trips in hopes that we will publicly share our experiences via social media. Examples include opening festivities for the Hermitage Club and traveling with GMC to the Super Bowl. (Go Pats!) We are available for more branded experience trips.